“@(*&#$$@(*&$%!@@#$&*^,” whispered one of the men at the back of the room in a strange language that sounded like nothing he’d ever heard before.

The tall, dark skinned whisperer rushed over to the sobbing woman next to Ashton, gruffly shouting something to her.

Up close, Ashton could see the whisperer had two gnarled black horns that sprouted out either side from the top his head and extended upwards with a subtle curve.

Seemingly etched onto his skin over his very muscular body were dark red markings that covered every inch of skin Ashton could see.

 Briefly the whisperer looked up from the woman who was presumably Ashton’s mother and into Ashton’s eyes with his blood red pupils, hatred evident in his eyes, before he quickly turned away.

Ashton’s mother screamed as the horned man scooped her up and carried her out of the room, shortly followed by the second man in the room, leaving Ashton alone with himself.

“What… just happened?” thought Ashton, confusion clouding his mind.

“Well, that didn’t go too well did it?” remarked Ash.

“D-Did you see the look in his eyes?! A-A-And their reaction too! It was like they’d given birth to a demon!” shrieked Ashton.

“Well… they could hardly judge them for that because they sure looked like fucking demons if I’ve ever seen one,” guessed Ash.

“W-W-W-What should we do!? W-What if they abandon us?!” cried Ashton.

“Bloody hell, can you shut the hell up?” snapped Ash, “We’re a baby for fucks sake, it’s not like there IS anything we can do, apart from sleeping or shitting there is nothing. So calm the hell down and just look around or something, it seems like we’re on an entirely different planet so look around, see if there’s anything interesting.”

A bit taken back by Ash’s outburst, Ashton did shut up and began to calm down, still terrified of what could happen, yet seeing as there truly was nothing he could do, he thought he may as well look around like Ash suggested.

Focusing on his surroundings, Ashton stared up at the sandstone ceiling of the room he was in, and tried to turn his head too like at the side of the room, yet his neck wasn’t exactly that flexible at the moment so he couldn’t turn his head.

In an effort to see the rest of his new world, Ashton began to rock side to side, aiming to balance himself on his side before he toppled over onto his front, his face squashed into the bed he was laying on.

He began to rock gently again, trying to get back on his side before he realised he could no longer breathe and he was slowly suffocating, his face growing red.

Upon this realisation Ashton began to desperately rock side to side as his energy was slowly drained from him.

Just as his vision had begun to fade and he had lost hope in living a wave of energy crashed through his body and he sprung off of his front and finally made it onto his side.

As Ashton hastily inhaled, filling his tiny lungs with precious oxygen, provided that’s what it was on this planet, laughter flooded his mind.

“That was fucking hilarious! I almost wish we had died, just for the laughs later! I mean, we’d have been reincarnated later anyway so it definitely would have been worth it!” burst out Ash.

“Shut up, that was scary Ash! I don’t want to die again!” sobbed Ashton.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Come then, stop sobbing and start looking around, I can’t see it if you can’t you know? Better do it quick too, I doubt when the others come back they’ll all of a sudden be all accommodating for some reason,” cautioned Ash.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

With a quick scan of the room, Ashton could see a large desk sitting against the wall, about half the height of the whisperer from earlier.

The desk was made of a very dark wood, one that he’d never seen the likes of before and fairly cluttered.

Spread across the desk was several piles of parchment and a bottle of ink with a quill, as well as a few leather bound books on their side.

Mounted above the desk on the sandstone-brick wall was a mirror, reflected in it was a small, male dark-skinned baby with tufts of straight black hair on its head.

He had a round, chubby face and dull golden eyes that stared right back at Ashton.

Covering the baby’s chest and arms were dark red markings similar to horned man’s markings and poking out the top of his head were small black horns, only a few centimetres in length.

Ashton studied himself in the mirror with great interest before moving along and searching for anything else.

Failing to find anything else, Ashton rolled back onto his back and laid there, studying the markings on his skin up close, not daring to attempt to roll over to the other side in fear of suffocation.

“Oi, listen carefully… I think they’re coming back,” whispered Ash.

As if on cue, shouting erupted just outside their room and several voices could be made out and soon the door swung open revealing three horned men different from before.

One of them stepped forward carrying a small metal cage, he opened its small hinged door and cautiously approached Ashton.

“Hey! There’s no way in hell that shit is baby proofed! What the fuck is everybody’s problem with us, we’re just a cute baby for fuck’s sake!” objected Ash.

The man reached out to Ashton with a gloved hand, disgust present on his face as he grabbed a hold of him and roughly shoved him into the cage.

Ashton’s face smacked into the bars, his head throbbing and he let out a generous wail to which his captor responded with a shake of the cage sending Ashton up into the roof of the cage, furthering his pain yet effectively shutting him up.

After briefly discussing something, Ashton’s captors departed, bringing him along in his brand spanking new cage.

Freezing cold air stung Ashton’s red, raw skin, hot tears ran down his cheeks as he tried his hardest not to let them hear his muffled sniffles.

“Hey, we’re outside now! Look around, I wanna see this shit,” demanded Ash.

Propping his head up on his tiny hands, Ashton looked out at the world through the bars of his cage.

Suspended in space, taking up half of the sky was an enormous blue planet that lit his entire view and its luminous blue glow illuminated the small desert town he was in.

Providing Ashton wasn’t on the edge of the town, as he could only see in one direction, then the town was very small, as the number of small sandstone house could be counted on two hands.

The town itself surrounded a small lake which reflected the beauty of the ocean planet above them in all of its magnitude.

Residing in the centre of the lake was a slightly larger sandstone building, an orange glow lighting up a few of the windows.

Sick of the small town, Ashton continued to look up at the ocean planet that was perfectly framed by an amalgamation of galaxies, constellations and bright lights, in pure wonder and amazement, temporarily swept away from his current, grim reality.

However, that current grim reality returned quickly as Ashton’s cage jolted awkwardly and he smacked into the back of his cage, his head colliding with the bars.

Tears in his eyes, he looked up again to see they’d entered a small wooden boat, made of the same dark wood as the desk from earlier.

The men picked up some matching oars and began to row, slowly approaching the building at the centre of the lake.

The boat was silent as they effortlessly paddled through the calm, clear water and the men spared not a single glance towards Ashton, instead staring onwards towards their destination.

The ride may have been nice if Ashton wasn’t freezing cold, naked, or in a cage, after all it was truly a beautiful night.

With a crunch, the boat hit land and the horned men arose and exited the boat, one stopping to pick up Ashton to bring him along.

Silent again, they walked up to the front of the house and knocked obnoxiously loudly.

Almost a minute later, an elderly man with snow white horns opened the door, briefly glancing at Ashton with the face of a person who’d just been made to swallow shit, before he motioned the men.

Warmth flooded through Ashton’s body and he sighed in relief while the elderly man and the others yelled about something, most likely him.

Soon he was picked up once again lead away from the others and to an old, cracked wooden door.

Lying behind the door was a set of steps that lead into pure darkness, something which Ashton was completely used to now.

As his carrier walked down the steps into the darkness, light flooded the room as dusty old torches burst into flame all around them, illuminating the dusty, damp basement.

His mouth agape, Ashton was shocked, every torch in the room had been ignited at the exact same time.  It was if it were….

“Fuck yeah! Magic, this might be more exciting than I thought! Well… provided we aren’t enslaved… starved… turned into the old guy’s boy toy… or incinerated, castrated and drowned.

“C-Castrated?!” yelped Ashton.

“Well, maybe not castrated… yeah, forget it. I got a little carried away at the end there,” reassured Ash.

Ashton shifted around in his cage, attempting to get a better look at the room before being hurled through the air.

The cage collided with the ground… hard.

The cage landed on its side sending Ashton face first into metal bars, knocking him out on impact.

“Hm… This is becoming a regular thing now,” commented Ash, the torches promptly extinguishing leaving them alone in the darkness.